their concurrence and approbation to what those persons had prevailed with Authority here to ordain and appoint concerning Church Discipline and the rooting out of Episcopal order Prelacy and the Liturgy but the successe we are told it had in all places is so far from being bragged on which had it answered some expectations would no doubt have been exalted to no small height that it is scarce at all known whether there were ever any such thing or not but an Altum Silentium thought fittest in the businesse It is not I suppose so proper for me I leave that to others who as much more concerned so doubtlesse more truly knowing particulars to publish to the Nation what I have credibly heard nor perhaps will it as affairs now stand be taken well on any part to relate what I read in a modern grave and sober Author a Member also of a forein eminent reformed Church as an answer from that reformed Church where at that time they must needs feed their Phansy with the best and fairest hopes of successe every way answerable to their expectation nor shall I recite other particulars I read likewise concerning that addresse which it seems being printed was sent to no lesse than seaventeen Churches and States beyond sea nor what acceptation that Author saith it had and what censure the Phrase the Latine the Tenor and ends thereof met with in some places Albeit as the said Author affirms the same is divulged to the world in several languages though so little known here amongst us and how the rest to whom it was addressed received the same themselves it is supposed best know And certainly it would be a signal peece of Candor and ingenuity in them and what in such a conjuncture of time as this would be most grateful and acceptable to the whole Kingdome especially such as my self Private-Lay-gentlemen who hear of these things at a distance and sometimes read what casually comes to their hands and would very gladly hear the truth of what opinion their brethren of the reformed Churches abroad had of their addresse and of the extirpation of Episcopacy and Liturgy here amongst us But lest this may in vain he called for it shall here be very faithfully though briefly hinted what some of the most eminent and renowned sort of the Reformation abroad amongst many others which may in a little time be collected and set forth likewise thought and expressed themselves concerning those two particulars of Episcopacy and Liturgy which for some ends have of late been such ponderous and heavy burthens and such grievous eye-sores to some people Calvin it is hoped is one who is Omni exceptione major And therefore fittest to lead the Van in this particular who in an Epistle of his to Cardinal Sadolet speaking of the Church of Rome saith thus Let them saith he establish such an Hierarchy where the Bishops having the dignity resuse not to submit themselvs to Christ and depend on him as their only head and refer themseves to him And let them retain amongst them such a brotherly Society which is not entertained but by the Bond of Truth then if there be found any persons who refuse to respect such a Hierarchy with Reverence and Soveraign Obedience I do acknowledge and confesse him worthy of all sorts of Anathema This for the Episcopal Order and Degree in general and from the Pen of Calvin the supposed Grand Anti-Episcopist me-thinks should bear much sway and credit with some men That great Professor at Geneva Lib. 2. Praescript Theolog. Iacobus Lectius makes the English Bishops such true and lawful Bishops as St. Paul writeth of to Timothy and Titus And we deny not saith he but there hath been formerly such Bishops and that there are some now and that they elect such now in the Kingdome of England Beza writes thus to Arch-bishop Whitgift March 1. 1591. In my writings saith he touching the Ecclesiastical government I have opposed the Roman Hierarchy but it was never in my intention to oppose the Polity of the English Church or to desire of you to conform your Church according to the pattern of the Presbyterian discipline for whilst the substance of your Doctrine is uniform with the Church of Christ It may be lawful for us to differ in other matters according as the circumstances of time place and persons require and as is avowed by the prescription of Antiquity and for this effect I desire and hope that the sacred and holy society of your Bishops will continue and maintain for ever their right and title in the government of the Church c. That great Author of the Buckler of faith expounding the 30th Article of the Churches of France Confession of faith cleerly expresses the great regard and esteem they have of their neighbour Churches where the Bishops have superiority And in his disputations of Divinity in the university of Sedan one of his Theses is this We maintain that the Bishops of England after their conversion to the faith and their abjuration of Papistry were faithful servants of God and ought not to forsake neither the name nor Title of Bishops Where can it be made appear that any of the Reformed Churches abroad ever quarrelled at this our Church as Anti-Christian or shewed the least regret against it for retaining the Episcopal Order or Liturgy amongst us nay what high Encomiums and Gratulations from many of them may be produced of this our Church and Condolements of their own Condition that they are not so happy and blessed as we are in that particular of their Church Government Order and Discipline It may therefore well be deemed more than a hard Task to procure those Churches so far to decline their Reason and Charity as to contradict all their former professions so frequently made upon all occasions and their Consciences too meerly to gratifie the humour and interest of some persons who though they had then as they thought at least a great esteem and credit abroad found themselves as much mistaken in their expectations in that particular as they were erroneous in the Marks and Characters of Anti-Christianism It is possible the French Churches were much looked upon as examples for Regulating the Reformation so much noysed and talked on here amongst us It cannot therefore be amisse to hear what a Sober Learned and Solid Member of the Church there writes and that with sadnesse enough for their inforced and necessitated condition The best saith he that they were able to do having the Court and Clergy against them in matters of Order and Discipline was to provide Pastors who should teach purely and leave them in a simple equality there being no questioning about Governing in times of persecution but to instruct and suffer And it being a thing of danger and envy to erect New Degrees which could not be done without quarrelling at them which were established Necessity saith he contributed to Prudence in that Reformation the same
exceeds the most of them But this matter is of so popular a nature as some men knew it would not bear learned and sober debates lest being convinced by the evidence of Reason as well as Laws they should have been driven either to sin more against their knowledge by taking away the Liturgy or to displease some faction of the people by continuing the use of it Though I believe they have offended more considerable men not only for their numbers and estates but for their weighty and judicious piety than those are whose weaknesse or giddinesse they sought to gratifie by taking it away One of the greatest faults some men found with the Common-Prayer-Book I believe was this That it taught then to pray so oft for Me to which Petitions they had not Loyalty enough to say Amen nor yet Charity enough to forbear Reproaches and even Cursings of Me in their own Forms instead of praying for Me. I wish their Repentance may be their only punishment that seeing the mischiefs which the disuse of Publique Liturgies hath already produced they may restore that credit use and Reverence to them which by the antient Churches were given to Set Forms of sound and wholsom words MEDITATION ANd thou O LORD which art the same God blessed for ever whose mercies are full of variety and yet of constancy thou denyest us not a new and fresh sense of our old and dayly wants nor despisest renewed affections joyned to constant expressions Let us not want the benefit of thy Churches united and well-advised Devotions Let the matters of our Prayers be agreeable to thy will which is alwayes the same and the fervency of our Spirits to the motions of thy holy Spirit in us And then we doubt not but thy spiritual perfections are such as thou art neither to be pleased with affected Novelties for matter or manner nor offended with the pious constancy of our petitions in them both Whose variety or constancy thou hast no where either forbidden or commanded but left them to the piety and prudence of thy Church that both may be used neither despised Keep men in that pious moderation of their judgments in matter of Religion that their ignorance may not offend others nor their opinion of their own abilities tempt them to deprive others of what they may lawfully and devoutly use to help their infirmities And since the advantage of Error consists in novelty and variety as Truths in unity and constancy Suffer not thy Church to be pestered with errors and deformed with undecencies in thy service under the pretence of variety and novelty Nor to be deprived of truth unity and order under this fallacy That constancy is the cause of formality LORD keep us from formal Hypocrisie in our own hearts and then we know that praying to thee or praysing of thee with David and other holy men in the same forms cannot hurt us Give us wisdome to amend what is amisse within us and there will be lesse to mend without us Evermore defend and deliver thy Church from the effects of blind zeal and ov-erbold devotion SIlence after this best becomes humanity No fit addition to this All-Comprehensive brevity can possibly be expressed by any Pen in the hand of a Mortal yet since Presumption hath dared to insert these few words after such divinely-inspired and transcendently elegant and pithy lines What better amends can be made than to cloze up this Rude breach by a second Retreat And listening again to what as to the particulars before treated of that Caelestial Quill left Ingraven as his last words amongst many others his truly Royal and most eminently-Pious and Paternal Instructions to his Son then Heir apparent of all his Earthly Crowns and Dominions and now our most Dear and Dread Lord and Soveraign ABove all I would have You as I hope You are already well grounded and setled in your Religion The best profession of which I have ever esteemed that of the Church of England in which you have been educated Yet I would have your own Judgement and Reason now seal to that sacred bond which education hath written that it may be judiciously your own Religion and not other mens custome or tradition which you profess In this I charge You to persevere as comming nearest to Gods Word for Doctrine and to the Primitive examples for Government with some little amendment which I have otherwhere expressed and often offered though in vain Your fixation in matters of Religion will not be more necessary for your Souls than your Kingdomes peace when God shall bring you to them For I have observed that the Devil of Rebellion doth commonly turn himself into an Angel of Reformation and the old Serpent can pretend new Lights When some mens Consciences accuse them for Sedition and Faction they stop its mouth with the name and noise of Religion when Piety pleads for Peace and patience they cry out Zeal So that unlesse in this point You be well setled you shall never want temptations to destr Yoy ou and Yours under pretentions of Reforming matters of Religion for that seems even to worst men as the best and most auspicious beginning of their worst designs Where besides the Novelty which is taking enough with the Vulgar every one hath an affectation by seeming forward to an outward Reformation of Religion to be thought zealous hoping to cover those irreligious deformities whereto they are conscious by a severity of censuring other mens opinions or actions Take heed of abetting any Factions or applying to any publick Discriminations in matters of Religion contrary to what is in your Judgement and the Church well settled c. You may never expect lesse of Loyalty Justice or Humanity than from those who ingage into Religious Rebellion Their interests are alwayes made Gods under the colours of Piety ambitions policies march not only with greatest security but applause as to the populacie you may hear from them Jacobs voyce but you shall feel they have Esaus hands Nothing seemed lesse considerable than the Presbyterian Fashion in England for many years so complyant they were to publique publick order nor was their party great either Church or State as to mens judgements But as soon as Discontent drave men into Sidings as ill humours fall to the disaffected part which causes inflamations so did all at first who affected any Novelties adhere to that Side as the most remarkable and specious note of difference then in point of Religion All the lesser Factions at first were officious Servants to Presbytery their great Master till time and military successe discovering to each their peculiar advantages invited them to part stakes and leaving the joynt stock of uniform Religion pretended each to drive for their Party the trade of profits and preferments to the breaking and undoing not only of the Church and State but even of Presbytery it self which seemed and hoped at first to have ingrossed all In these two points the preservation
THE ENGLISH EPISCOPACY AND LITURGY Asserted by the Great Reformers abroad AND The most Glorious and ROYAL MARTYR The Late KING His Opinion and Suffrage for them Published by a Private Gentleman for the Publique good LONDON Printed by Tho. Leach for Henry Seile over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1660. The English EPISCOPACY AND LITURGY ASSERTED THat Government is as necessary to the preservation of the Church as preaching the Gospel was to the plantation of it is apparent by the Apostles practice who no sooner had converted a Province City or any considerable number of Persons but presently left it in the hands of some faithful overseers to dresse tend and water till it grew up to such a perfection as became the Spouse of Christ And in all such perfect and setled Churches That there ought to be three distinct Orders and Degrees in the pastoral charge thereof viz. Bishop Priest or Presbyter and Deacon is so fully and abundantly Asserted and Proved by so many able Pens upon occasion of the late differences in point of Church Discipline and the same is thereby become so known and manifest a Truth especially to the Learned Solid and Iudicious that it cannot but be believed that those of any considerable Abilities and Ingenuitie who chiefly opposed it Remain now very well satisfied in that particular it being indeed very cleer and apparent to knowing and impartial Iudgements That Government by Bishops superior to Presbyters is of Apostolical institution and this as fully to be made good by Ecclesiastical Records as it is possible for any Truth to be that way demonstrated Nor doth the Canon of the Sacred Scripture it self depend upon more undoubted and unquestionable verity and demonstration And although the absolute and distinct precept of Christ himself for it is not so cleerly to be Asserted Yet his own superiority to the twelve Apostles and Theirs to the seventy Disciples is such an exemplary Copy of Bishop Priest or Presbyter and Deacon in the Government and Discipline of the Church as that it was Transcribed in the very next Age witness Ignatius St. Johns Contemporary and allowed to receive Esteem and Honour the Bishops as Christ the Presbyters as the Apostles and Deacons as the Seventy Nor is superiority in Order lesse cleerly Apostolical by the example and practice of themselves who when Judas had fell from the orb and dignity he first moved in They by the direction of the Sacred Spirit assumed Matthias from an inferior to a superior Order amongst them The Hierarchy of the Church in Government being derivative as it were from God himself and the same in Character and Representation which he is pleased to exercise amongst the Blessed in Heaven That therefore which some of a more unsatisfiable nature and disposition though beaten out of all holds for the Divine right of their Geneva Platform yet loath to depart with that Classical nay Parochial supremacy and more than Lordship which they Phansied themselves so near the absolute possession of make now the matter of their frequent converse in all companies and upon all occasions is to extoll and magnifie the order and manner of the Discipline of the reformed Churches abroad and to allure and captivate vulgar apprehensions very much advance and preferre the same before that which hath been so long and legally established here in the Church of England under Bishops and which hath rendred us so famous and flourishing a people and Nation throughout the world Howbeit if you demand now of such an extoller of Forein order what Church abroad it is not governed by Bishops which he so much magnifies for its Discipline And wherein the excellency of it's beauty lyes He knows not where to fix but is at a kind of losse presently and after a small while the paradox doth so puzzle him in its maintenance and hunt him from one absurdity to another that in conclusion he is fain to sit down wildred and benighted in the fogs and darknesse of his own brain and Intellect The difference of Discipline amongst the reformed Churches abroad is very well known how those of the French differ from the Scotish the Scotish from the Flemings or Dutch those from the Switzers and so others in like manner and the necessity of some Churches to fit their Tapestry to their Rooms viz. their Discipline to the state and condition they live in is as notorious And certainly the modesty of that grave and excellent Prelate is much to be commended who having fully proved the imposition or laying on of hands by the Bishop to be of most antient institution in the Christian Church useth these words I write not here saith he to prejudice our neighbour Churches I dare not limit the extraordinaray operation of the holy Spirit where the ordinary means is wanting without the fault of the persons God fed his people with Manna so long as they were in the Wildernesse Necessity is a strong pleader Many reformed Churches live under Kings and Bishops of another Communion Others have particular necessitating reasons why they could not continue nor introduce Bishops But it is not so with us c. The exigence of time place and persons may possibly be with Divine pity beheld in all their prejudicial hindrances provided that divine order and institution be duely observed Another reverend Bishop hath likewise as charitable an expression Bishop Hall in his treatise of Episcopacy I must cordially respect saith he those forein Churches who have chosen and followed an outward form which in every respect is most expedient and suitable to their condition And again another speaks thus Some plants thrive best in the shadow where the form of Government without Bishops agrees best with the constitution of some Common-wealth we pray to God to give them joy in it and pray them to say as much for us Damus petimusque vicissim These very charitable and moderate passages of the Church Prelates and Bishops are the rather hinted and very many more might be to manifest the difference there is between the spirits and dispositions of such and those of some other persons who condemn all as Heretical and Antichristian and to be extirpated Root and Branch which complies not in Omni modo to their judgement or rather Phansy and that by an Oath or Covenant imposed not only upon siterate persons but upon such also who were so far from understanding the depth of what they sware as that they were utterly ignorant whether the words Hierarchy and Liturgy which they covenant to extirpate be Hebrew Greek Latin French Italian c. or what other language and yet cry down those Prelates for Lordly Imperious and Tyrannical We have it as a common rumor amongst us Gentlemen and it is supposed it will not be denyed that a Declaration or Letters missive were by some grave persons in Assembly addressed to the reformed Churches of France the Low-Countries and Switzerland with diverse other Churches and States inviting
being most commodious for their present State and hardly could there be found a more proper and fitting for a Church that lives under Magistrates of a contrary Religion and in such expectation of those who injoy the Ecclesiastical degrees to come in likewise into the Reformation They by their humble and equal order keep themselves in a State of obedience proper and ready to submit themselves to their Diocesans when it shall please God to convert them And that their Fathers chose this equality not as in opposition to the degrees of the Clergy but as a way to dispose them and as a Plank ready to invite their Bishops to passe over to the Reformation and so receive them into their charge We are not offended at the Degrees of the Clergy nor their Revenues c. This paper is intended to be very brief therefore these great lights of the reformed Churches are only now mentioned there being many others produceable to the same purpose who very highly magnifie and extoll both our Government by Bishops and also the Liturgical order and manner of our Divine worship to Almighty God Concerning which last particular I shall likewise present the opinions of some of those worthies of the Reformation who upon occasion have so declared their judgments thereupon that the Framers of the Directory had surely very little cause to make the Nation believe That by a long and sad experience as is expressed in the Preface to that Directory they find that the English Liturgy is offensive to the Foreign reformed Churches And that it is to answer the expectation of those Churches that they reject it Calvin himself shall again lead the Van upon this sally likewise for presently after the compyling of our Liturgy by those great Champions of the English Reformation men of signal eminency and renown for wisdom piety and learning and some of them upon that very score and account glorious for Martyrdome also The same was sent to Mr. Calvin who wrote thus back to the then Protector of England his Majesty Edw. the 6th being then in minority As for the form of Prayers and Ecclesiastical Ceremonies I much approve That they should be established as a certain form from which it shall not be lawfull for the Pastors to go in the execution of their charge that so there may be provision made for simplicity and the consent of the Churches themselves may more certainly appear the extravagant levity of the affecters of novelty may be prevented Here we see Calvin the great Zam Zummim as to some particulars of the Framers of the Directory cleerly asserting both that there should be a certain form from which it should not be lawful to digresse And also approving the book of the Common Prayer sent to him and the Ecclesiastical Orders and Ceremonies of the English Church The same Calvin in his notes upon the 20th Psalm affords us a further and ample testimony of his approbation of set forms of Prayer and Liturgy And in the Confession presented in the name of the Churches of France to the Emperour and Princes of Germany he affirmeth thus That every Church hath right to make Laws Statutes or Canons and to establish a common Policy or Discipline And that obedience is owing to them and those that refuse this are to be accompted seditious and wilfull Thus Calvin Martin Bucer speaking of the form of our divine service or Liturgy saith thus Script Anglican p. 445 I thank God who hath given you grace to reform those ceremonies in such a purity For I have found nothing in it which is not taken out of the word of God or at least is not contrary to it being rightly interpreted Gualter and Bullinger men who cannot be denyed their rank and due place of eminency amongst those of the Reformation in a joynt Epistle of theirs wrote to some discontented Brethren here in England concerning the Discipline and Ceremonies of this our Church say thus That if any of the People perswade themselves that those things smell of Popery Let them learn to know the contrary and let them be perfectly instructed and that if the clamors of any raise up trouble among the multitude let them beware lest in so doing and provoking Authority they draw not upon their necks a more heavy yoke Beza likewise in his Epistle Ad quosdam Anglicarum Ecclesiarum fratres Speaking of the same subject matter expresses himself fully to the same purpose and tells them withall That the Surplisse is not of such importance to raise scruples in any against the wearing of it And so likewise for kneeling at the Sacrament Musick in Churches things of like nature That they are matters of such indifferency Lib. precum f. 202. 112. that they should no ways be troubled at them Gilbertus a German in a book of his long since written propounds the English Liturgy for a sample of the antient forms used in the Church of God Isaac Causabon that man of so great fame and learning admires the care of our English Church for Antiquity and Purity and generally proclaims it in all his Epistles That there was not any where else the like to be found nor that he ever hoped to see it in any place till himself came hither into England What the Church of Zeland especially the Wallachrian Classis returned in answer to some persons who addressed to them is manifest enough they not only approving of set prescribed forms of publique Prayer as tending much to edification but give reasons of such their approbation from Scripture and the practice of reformed Churches and conclude it to be a precise singularity in those who reject it It would be endlesse to relate the particular assertions of Foreign persons of choice sincerity and great learning mayn Opposers likewise of the Roman rubbish and superstition approving and applauding Liturgy and set forms of Prayer for publique use in the service of God the whole Christian World indeed in all ages including Christ himself and his Apostles and in all places asserting approving and advancing the same And surely had some persons but called to mind for it is not possible to be imagined they should be ignorant of it what general approbation the English Liturgy and Ceremonies of this our Church received at Dort by the Divines of Germany France Denmark Swedeland and Switzerland which appears in the Acts of that Synode many of which Divines as also some of our own then and there present 't is probable may either yet be living at this day or very lately Dead I say had they been mindful of this they would certainly have forborn to say there where it is publique legible enough That by long and sad experience they found that the English Liturgy was offensive to the foreign reformed Churches for certainly that is a very great error and mistake It being most manifest and notorious that we are so far from giving them offence in that particular that it
seems they desire nothing more earnestly than to be in the same condition with us which appears by a Declaration made by some Divines of note and esteem in foreign parts and that but few years agoe and since some of our late troubles here amongst us first began which inter alia speaks thus One day when it shall please God to perfect Edit a D. Jobanne Duraeo An. 1638. and confirm Amity in these Churches we may be able by a universal Council and Consent to form a certain Liturgy which may be as a Symbole and Bond of Concord amongst us Some persons 't is true have made it a Malum Discordiae here But we see our neighbours look upon a Liturgy and constant set form of Prayer to be as a Symbole and Bond of Concord to them Nor indeed is there any thing more true than That all the reformed Churches abroad have their certain forms of Prayers for their Publique and Sacred administrations nor is it lesse true That many of the said Churches have Bishops likewise in full order and dignity answerable and correspondent to those of this our Church of England as all those Countries subject to the Crowns of Denmark and Sweden Almost throughout all Germany likewise the Episcopal Order and Degree is kept up and preserved though under another name and Title viz. Super-Intendents and in some places as in Brene the name of Bishops still remains In the large and ample Territories of Bohemia Polonia and Transylvania the Evangelical reformed Churches are Governed by Seniors as they call them who are in the same nature quality and degree and armed with the same power and authority for Church Government as our Bisheps To say nothing of those Churches of Russia Grecia and India and the rest of the world whose Doctrine indeed we lesse know what it is than we do their Discipline it being not unknown that their Church Government there is by Bishops both in quality and Title so that it may well be deemed as a thing very improbable that the Oppugners of Episcopacy and Liturgy here amongst us at home will ever be able to make it appear by all the Art or indeavours that can be used That any approbation countenance or assistance to them in such their design will ever in any way or sort be affoorded to them from abroad especially from any considerable place of the Reformation who are so far from desiring the glory of the English Church heretofore so famous and flourishing in all respects whatsoever and yeelding such protection safety and honour to all their reformed neighbours and allyes in all parts and places should be any way darkened or ecclipsed or its eminency and lustre in any kind diminished or abated That nothing questionlesse hath been is or can be greater matter of Sorrow and Condolement to them than the Ayms Attempts and Desires of some men nor more Joy and Pastime to our Romish Adversaries than to see the Sons and Members of that Church heretofore so terrible and dreadful to them and their Usurpations rending and tearing out their Mothers Bowels and all for controversies of Government Discipline and Ceremony and that without the least shew of ought tending to any need or necessity whatsoever Thus much for a tast only how the Reformed Foreign Palats have and without all doubt still do Rellish that sharpnesse which hath here been used against that Government Order and Discipline which hath so long beautified and rendred glorious that Kings Daughter our Church of England and which had such a beginning continuance and so firm and often repeated an establishment And having made the precedent mention of the great joy and pleasure which our Romish Adversaries no doubt take at these differences here amongst us And since that some persons who perhaps least meant it have indeed which 't is hoped is now become cleer and manifest to them but waged their War and fought their Battails wherein themselves by all their Learning and Policy could never make so great an advance as of late years since our Troubles began Let it be remembred that upon the Reformed Composure of our Liturgy the great quarrel then against it was alwayes made by the Papists which they set on foot under several Modes and Guizes sometimes complaining of that which they called Craft and Subtlety in our Reformers in their seeming complyance with them and how politique they were to order things so as might in shew seem no great departure from them in their publique worship and service of God yet really and indeed they had thereby given them the far more deadly wound and such whereof it would be very difficult for them ever to work out a recovery Sometimes in down right terms they fell upon it being so reformed and reduced to pure Antiquity Insomuch that John Ould in Queen Maries dayes and many others eminent Assertors thereof publiquely wrote against them in Defence of it And Arch-Bishop Cranmer made a Publique Challenge that if he might be permitted to take to him Peter Martyr and 4. or 5. more he would enter the Lists with any Papists living and defend the Book to be perfectly agreable to the word of God and the same in effect which had been used in the Church of God for 1500 yeers And in those fiery dayes of Queen Mary when the use of it was interdicted it was frequently burned as an haeretical peice condemned by Roman Authority in the same Fire with such as suffered Martyrdom for asserting that and other Doctrins and usages of our Church of which there is amongst others this memorable Record in the Acts and monuments of our Church That one Iohn Hullyer fellow of Kings College in Cambridge who being at the stake A book of Comon-Prayer amongst others was thrown into the fire to him and happened to fall between his hands which he received with the greatest joy that could possibly be expressed by him and read in it till the flame and smoak hindred his sight and then he clapt it to his breast closely embracing it and with elevated hands and devout prayers he yeelded up the ghost Arch-Bishop Cranmer before mentioned who amongst other things objected for such asserting the Liturgy c. suffered Martyrdom likewise by the Papists in his letters published by Myles Coverdale laments it as the most cruel and severe piece of persecution and tyranny towards him that they would not suffer him to have the use of the Common-Prayer book in Prison What troubles at Frankfort arose to the Reformers flying thither for refuge and by whose fomentation and incouragement they befell and continued amongst them is manifest enough and how learnedly and unanswerably the English Liturgy and every part thereof was there maintained by them against all Opposers whatsoever is as manifest likewise Nor can it be thought a difficult matter to guesse who privately and obliquely excited and encouraged Hacket Coppinger and Arthington in Q. Eliz. time and many others which might be named
and exceptions of those who thought it a part of piety to make what prophane objections they could against it especialy for Popery and Superstition Whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the Doctrine of the Church of England And this by all Reformed Churches is confessed to be most sound and Orthodox For the manner of using Set and prescribed Forms there is no doubt but that wholsom words being known and fitted tâ— mens understandings are soonest received into their hearts and aptest to excite and carry along with them judicious and fervent affections Nor do I see any reason why Christians should be weary of a well composed Liturgy as I hold this to be more than of all other things wherein the Coâ—stancy abates nothing of the excellency and usefulnesse I could never see any reason why any Christian should abhor or be forbidden to use the same forms of Prayer since he prays to the same God believes in the same Saviour professeth the same Truths reads the same Scriptures hath the same Duties upon him and feels the same dayly Wants for the most part both inward and outward which are common to the whole Church Sure we may as well before-hand know what we pray as to whom we pray and in what words as to what sense when we desire the same things what hinders we may not use the same words our appetite and disgestion too may be good when we use as we pray for Our daily bread Some men I hear are so impatient not to use in all their devotions their own invention and gifts that they not only disuse as too many but wholly cast away and contemn the Lords Prayer whose great guilt is that it is the warrant and original pattern of all set Liturgies in the Christian Church I ever thought that the proud ostentation of mens abilities for invention and the vain affectations of variety for expressions or in publick Prayer or in any sacred administrations merits a greater brand of sin than that which they call Coldnesse and Barrennesse nor are men in those novelties lesse subject to formal and superficial tempers as to their hearts than in the use of constant Forms where not the words but mens hearts are too blame I make no doubt but a man may be very formal in the most extemporary variety and very fervently devout in the most wonted expressions nor is God more a God of Variety than of Constancy nor are constant Forms of Prayers more likely to flat and hinder the Spirit of Prayer and Devotion than unpremeditated and confused variety to distract and lose it Though I am not against a grave modest discreet and humble use of Ministers gifts even in publique the better to fit and excite their own and the peoples affections to the present occasions yet I know no necessity why private and single abilities should quite justle out and deprive the Church of the joynt abilities and concurrent gifts of many learned and godly men such as the Composers of the Service-Book were who may in all reason be thought to have more of gifts and graces enabling them to compose with serious deliberation and concurrent advise such Forms of Prayers as may best fit the Churches common wants inform the Hearers understanding and stir up that fiduciary and fervent application of their spirits wherein consists the very life and soul of Prayer and that so much pretended Spirit of Prayer that any private man by his solitary abilities can be presumed to have which what they are many times even there where they make a great noise and shew the affectations emptinesse impertinency rudenesse confusions flatnesse levity obscurity vain and ridiculous repetitions the senslesse and oft times blasphemous expressions all these burthened with a most tedious and intolerable length do sufficiently convince all men but those who glory in that Pharisaick way Wherein men must be strangely impudent and flatterers of themselves not to have an infinite shame of what they so do and say in things of so sacred a nature before God and the Church after so ridiculous and indeed profane a manner Nor can it be expected but that in duties of frequent performance as Sacramental administrations and the like which are still the same Ministers must either come to use their own Forms constantly which are not like to be so sound or comprehensive of the nature of the duty as Forms of publick composure or else they must every time affect new expressions when the subject is the same which can hardly be presumed in any mans greatest sufficiencies not to want many times much of that compleatnesse order and gravity becomming those duties which by this means are exposed at every celebration to every Ministers private infirmities indispositions errours disorders and defects both for judgment and expression A serious sense of which Inconvenience in the Church unavoidably following every mans several manner of officiating no doubt first occasioned the wisdom and piety of the Antient Churches to remedy those mischiefs by the use of constant Liturgies of Publick composure The want of which I believe this Church will sufficiently feel when the unhappy fruits of many mens ungoverned ignorance and confident defects shall be discovered in more errours schisms disorders and uncharitable distractions in Religion which are already but too many the more is the pity However if violence must needs bring in and abett those innovations that men may not seem to have nothing to do which Law Reason and Religion forbids at least to be so obtruded as wholly to justle out the publick Liturgie Yet nothing can excuse that most unjust and partial severity of those men who either lately had subscribed to used and maintained the service book or refused to use it cried out of the rigour of Laws and Bishops which suffered them not to use the Liberty of their Consciences in not using it That these men I say should so suddenly change the Liturgy into a Directory as if the Spirit needed help for invention though not for expressions or as if matter prescribed did not as much stint and obstruct the Spirit as if it were cloathed in and confined to fit words So slight and easy is that Legerdemain which will serve to delude the Vulgar That further they should use such severity as not to suffer without penalty any to use the Common-Prayer-Book publiquely although their Consciences bind them to it as a duty of Piety to God and Obedience to the Laws Thus I see no men are prone to be greater Tyrants and more rigorous exacters upon others to conform to their illegal Novelties than such whose pride was formally least disposed to the obedience of lawful Constitutions and whose licentious humors most pretended Conscientious liberties which freedom with much regret they now allow to Me and My Chaplains when they may have leave to serve Me whose abilities even in their extemporary way comes not short of the others but their modesty and learning far
of Established Religion and Laws I may without Vanity turn the reproach of My suffrings as to the Worlds censure into the honour of a kind of Martyrdome as to the testimony of My own Conscience The Troublers of My Kingdoms having nothing else to object against me but this that I prefer Religion and Laws Established before those alterations they propounded I have You see conflicted with different and opposite Factions for so I must needs call and count all those that act not in any conformity to the Lawes established in Church and State no sooner have they by force subdued what they counted their Common Enemy that is all those that adhered to the Lawes and to Me and are secured from that fear but they are divided to so high a rivalry as sets them more at defiance against each other than against their Antagonists Time will dissipiate all Factions when once the rough horns of private mens covetous and ambitious designs shall discover themselves which were at first wrapt up and hidden under the soft and smooth pretensions of Religion Reformation and Liberty As the Wolf is not lesse cruel so he will be more justly hated when he shall appear no better than a Wolf under Sheeps cloathing If You never see My face again and God will have Me buried in such a barbarous Imprisonment and obscurity which the perfecting some Mens designs require wherein few hearts that love Me are permitted to exchange a word or a look with Me I do require and entreat You as Your Father and Your King that You never suffer Your heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Churc of England I tell You I have tryed it and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world not only in the Community as Chriastin but also in the special notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitions Tyranny and the meanesse of of fantastique Anarchy Not but that the draught being excellent as to the main both for Doctrine and Government in the Church of England some lines as in very good figures may haply need some sweetning or polishing which might here have easily been done by a safe and gentle hand if some mens precipitancy had not violenly demanded such rude alterations as would have quite destroyed all the beauty and proportions of the whole The scandal of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to You against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily Answered to them or Your own thoughts in this That scarce any one who hath been a Beginner or an active Prosecutor of this late War against the Church the Laws and Me either was or is a true Lover Embracer or Practiser of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gives such rules nor ever before set such examples 'T is true some heretofore had the boldnesse to present threatning Petitions to their Princes and Parliaments which others of the same Faction but of worse spirits have now put in execution but let not counterfeit and disorderly Zeal abate Your value and esteem of true Piety both of them are to be known by their fruits the sweetnesse of the Vine and Fig-tree is not to be despised though the Brambles and Thorns spould pretend to bear Figs and Grapes thereby to rule over the Trees And if God will have disloyalty perfected by My destruction let My memory ever with My name live in You as of Your Father that loves You and once a King of three flourishing Kingdoms Whom God thought fit to honour not only with the Scepter and Government of them but also with the suffering many indignities and an untimely death for them While I studied to preserve the rights of the Church the power of the Laws the honour of My Crown the privilege of Parliaments the liberties of My People and My own Conscience which I thank God is dearer to Me than a thousand Kingdoms Keep You to true principles of piety virtue and honour You shall never want a Kingdom I pray God bless You and establish Your Kingdoms in righteousness Your Soul in true Religion and Your honour in the love of God and Your people FINIS